


Phone Tag

by undersail2013



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Castiel, Coda, Demon Dean, Episode: s09e23 Do You Believe in Miracles?, F/M, Team Free Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 02:24:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1671227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undersail2013/pseuds/undersail2013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Well guess what?  He's dead, too."</p>
<p>As if Castiel would take Metatron's word as gospel.</p>
<p>He has a few calls to make...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phone Tag

The first thing Cas does is pull out his phone and dial Dean. It rings and rings; the voicemail picks up: “You know what to do.”

“Dean. Metatron said that you- Dean, please don’t be dead. I destroyed the tablet and incarcerated Metatron, but I need- I need you to- dammit Dean, I just need _you_.” He sighs, pauses. “We still have to figure out how to reopen Heaven permanently. If you’re trapped in the veil, I will find you and I see that you get … where you need to be.” Another pause before he adds, “I love you, Dean.”

His eyes are too damp to see the screen properly and he accidentally hits redial instead of calling Sam’s number. It only rings once before he notices his mistake and hangs up.

Sam answers on the second ring. “Cas?”

“Sam. Metatron said that Dean-”

“Y-yeah. I’m sorry, Cas. But um, I’m in the middle of a spell right now. Can I call you back?”

“What spell?” His eyes narrow with suspicion. “What are you doing, Sam?”

“Calling Crowley. He essentially gave that demon mark to Dean; maybe he can-”

“Stop, Sam. Wait. Please. Wait until I get there. It’ll be safer with two.” Sam huffs impatiently but says nothing; Cas continues. “We none of us have a very good history of dealing with him singly.”

Sam sighs. “You’re right. How soon can you get here?”

“I’m an easy day’s drive, assuming the portal lets out where I came in. Now, tell me about Dean. Tell me everything.”

***

Cas has been driving for less than an hour when his phone rings. He fumbles for the speaker button.

“Sam?”

“Nope.”

Cas’ erstwhile human heart seems to stop, and the world swims. “Dean,” he breathes.

“Yeah, it’s uh, it’s me.” He sounds contrite, apologetic. Why?

“Dean, they told me you were-”

“I’m not dead, Cas. It’s uh, it’s worse than that.”

“What could be worse?”

“I- I’m a- Jesus, Cas, I can’t even say it.” His voice is ragged.

“A ghost?” he supplies.

Dean laughs, and it’s a bitter sound. “A ghost? No, if only.”

“Then what?” Cas muses, less a direct question than a rhetorical one.

Dean clears his throat, changing the subject. “I- I heard your message.”

“I mean it.”

“Yeah well. Huh. Me too.”

Cas smiles. “Dean,” he almost purrs.

“No point getting all sappy about it," Dean says, brusque. "You won’t feel that way when you know.”

“Dean. I can’t help you if you don’t let me. Where are you? I’ll come now.”

“No. Don’t. I’m with Crowley.”

Cas squints. “He’s there with you, now?”

“Well no, he’s on a, uh, call of his own.”

“Oh.” Cas remembers what he’d meant to ask. “Does Sam know where you are? Last I heard, he thought you were on your bed. Dead.”

“No. I don’t want him to see me like this, either.”

Cas scoffs, “So you’ll run into the arms of a demon but not your family.” Cas gives a sneering emphasis to the word “demon.”

“Yeah well, he kinda understands my situation a little better than ya’ll can,” he snarls, before calming. “But I think he knows how to remove the Mark, so yeah, I’m-”

“Oh Dean.” Suddenly Cas understands. “It turned you.”

Dean doesn’t say anything, but in his mind’s eye, Cas imagines Dean nodding into the phone.

“Dean, I’m sorry. I should have known. I should have said.”

He’s silent for a long moment before he replies. “I know. It’s okay, Cas. You couldn’t have- Fuck. I just wanted a victory, you know? Kill a big boss, die a hero, make you and Sam proud of me. Not feel like such an asshole for what I did to Sammy.” He sobs a breath. “And I got played. Again, Cas.” Softer, “Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? To each other?” He sounds utterly broken now.

“Let me come get you. Please. You have to know, you can’t be alone with Crowley. Not like this.”

The small crackle of static must be Dean’s stubble rubbing against the mouthpiece; he’s nodding. “Okay,” he croaks. “I’m on 36 heading west, just past Phillipsburg.”

Cas calculates the distances and shakes his head sadly. “You’ve barely left the bunker, and I’m hours away. We’ll set a rendezvous. Can you make it to St Francis by 3?”

Dean thinks a moment, pulls out his atlas. “Yeah,” he says. “I can do that.”

“Unless you think you can head back to the bunker?”

“No, I’d rather- Shit. I’d rather I wasn’t doing this at all. But him or you right now, I’d rather have you.”

Cas smiles at the word choice, though Dean seems not to remember.

***

As soon as Dean hangs up, Cas rings Sam. The call doesn't go through right away, and Cas worries that Sam has found, or rather not found, his brother. Before Cas has time to stow his phone, though, it's ringing again.

“Sam, have you been back to Dean’s room?”

“No, why?”

“Don’t. He’s, um, he’s not there.”

Sam sounds alarmed. “What? Where is he?”

“Sam, he’s not dead.”

“No, Cas, he is, I carried him back myself.”

“He’s- Sam, I knew he couldn’t be dead. I’m sure I would have felt it. But-”

“You could sense him? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Wait, listen, Sam. I _couldn’t_ sense him; that was the problem. Not dead, but not strictly alive, either.”

Getting agitated, Sam snaps, “So where is he, what happened to my brother, man?”

“I’m on my way to him now. He’s with Crowley. He’s. He’s a demon, Sam.”

Sam sucks in a breath. “No. How?”

“I’ll try to explain, but I believe he’s safe. Or will be soon. I should meet up with him in a few hours. If you don’t hear from us by 4 o’clock- well, then you can begin to worry.”

“I’ll activate the GPS as soon as you hang up. Cas?”

“Yes, Sam?”

“Thank you. Truly. Thank you for saving him. Again.”

“In all honesty, I should say I don’t do it for you.”

“I get that,” Sam adds with a chuckle.

“But you’re welcome.”

“Good luck, Cas. I trust you.”

Genuinely touched, Cas replies, “Thank you, Sam. That means a lot.”

***

Crowley lets them go with a few sharp words. Dean was never his prisoner, though neither the angel nor the hunter doubt that Crowley has plans for his own personal Knight of Hell. He disappears, leaving Cas and Dean alone between their two cars on the side of the road.

Cas is shocked at Dean’s appearance, to say the least. He tries to reassure Dean that “it’s not as bad as I feared. It’s not nearly as pronounced as Meg’s, and I found her beautiful, as well.”

Dean winces at the name drop. “What’s not?”

“Your ‘true’ face.” 

“My- Fuck,” he mutters. “I didn’t even think of that.” He closes his eyes, grits his teeth. “God, Cas, I am so stupid. I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything.”

Cas moves forward a step and his eyes dart to Dean’s. His eyes are safest: still green and bright, albeit smokier, less lustrous. If Cas tamps down his grace, he can’t even see the Hell taint.

“It’s okay,” borrowing Dean’s phrase. “You thought you were doing the right thing. It’s what we do.”

“And it bites us in the ass every time, so why do we keep trying?”

Cas considered that, searching for an answer. “Because we are weak and we want to be strong,” he said at last.

“I don’t feel very strong right now.”

Cas steps further into Dean’s personal space. He places awkward hands on Dean’s hips and shy lips upon his. He’s gratified to see a spark in Dean’s eyes when they reopen, startled but not displeased. “We’re stronger together. We’ll be stronger still when we return to Sam.”

“Yeah, okay,” he whispers, his voice rattling deep and breathy. “But, uh,” draping his arms over Cas’ shoulders and leaning in close to murmur the words against Cas’ lips, “not just yet, huh?”


End file.
